Wednesday, May 28, 2014

NOTHING NEW?

Perhaps you have heard the brouhaha over the new teacher’s
contracts in the Diocese of Cleveland.I
do understand the angst about them.Essentially there is nothing different about them per se, but on the other hand there is something very different
about them.

What is not different about them is that there is no new
information in them.What was implied
before is now spelled out.A public life
lived in accord with the faith was expected before and is expected now.

What is different is now it is spelled out on more
controversial topics.Living in invalid
marriages, publically supporting abortion rights, and a host of other points
have been spelled out more explicitly.This
is partly in response to the new healthcare mandates, partly to help stave off
litigation, and partly to reestablish a stronger Catholic identity in our
schools.

Is it a good idea?Not being a lawyer or a politician I am not sold either way.But there is an aspect of this whole dust
storm that is coming to light that illuminates a profound misunderstanding
about what we are (supposed to be) doing as Catholic schools.A reading of some Letters to the Editor as of
late give example.

One of these letters read something like this: “It is a
shame that the Catholic Church is forcing the issue on what constitutes a good
Catholic.By limiting the pool of
teachers, we will be missing out on great educators, which can only harm our
schools and our students.We want our
kids to have the best teachers.”

Such a statement betrays a deep confusion of the nature of Catholic
schools.A Catholic school is not a public
school, it is not even a private school, it is a parochial school.Unlike public schools which are becoming more
and more limited in passing on culture, discipline, ideas of right and wrong,
good and evil, or even God, and unlike private schools who are there to simply
provide a superior education (hopefully), a Catholic school is also about the
formation of the human person, imbuing ideas of the good with very clear ideas
of what that is.She passes on truth, concepts
of what is holy, beautiful, and how one should live embracing the respect of
life, family, the dignity of the human person, and all that entails with the
2,000 year understanding of the revealed truths of the faith.

It is culture that we are passing on, not simply
knowledge.If it were not for the faith
and the culture we would close our schools or make them profitable private
schools as has happened to so many of our colleges and high schools.

So let’s say there is a police officer that comes to your
child’s school to teach about staying off of drugs.He is very effective.The kids love him.He is popular with the parents.But he also has a website promoting illegal
drug use and the kids know it.He
admitted to the kids that he regularly uses drugs though they should stay off
of them.He was quoted in the newspaper
as saying that drugs should be made legal and available.No matter how good he is in the classroom and
while in the school building, do you really want him teaching your kids about
drugs?

Our faith is a culture, not a set of facts in a book.It cannot be taught like math.It is caught, not taught.No one can “teach Catholicism” while living a
life contrary to it for then it becomes a dead message.

I find the quote "...that the Catholic Church is forcing the issue on what constitutes a good Catholic." rather curious and ironic. If the Catholic Church is not to teach what it means to be a good Catholic, who is to do it?? It is obvious that our popular culture teaches our young people to be anything but.

18 years ago when we were considering educational options for our oldest, the Clinton/Gore and pro choice bumper stickers on the cars in the staff parking lot at the parish school took that particular consideration off the table. I like your analogy Father V.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

MONDAY - Monday Diary: A day in the life of a priest.TUESDAY - Quote Tuesday: A post of an interesting quote along with various other things sitting on my computer from the past week such as links, polls, pictures, videos, or games.WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY - Thoughts for your consideration either from me or guest bloggers.FRIDAY - Friday Popourri - A grab bag of regular topics from symbolism to vocation stories.